Dark Companions of Stars: Astrometric Commentary on the Lower End of the Main Sequence

ISBN-13: 9789401085861 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 124 str.

P. Kamp

Opis

If you want to understand the invisible, look careful at the visible. The Talmud A 'bird's eye' or rather a distant spacecraft's view of the solar system reveals an assembly of planets, terrestrial, giant and Pluto. The orbital motions are in the same sense, counter clockwise, as seen from the north of the general flattened space within which the planetary motions are confined. This state of affairs is corevolving and, more or less, coplanar. The rotations are in the same sense as the revolutions, with the strikiiig exception of Uranus whose sense of rotation is perpendicular to its plane of revolution. As time goes by, most of the planets remain fairly close to a general plane and at no time stray unduly far from it; they remain confined within a rather narrow box or disk with a large 'equatorial' extent. The most distant planet, Pluto, requires a diameter of some 80 astronomical units for the disk. One astronomical unit is the distance of the Earth to the Sun, to be more precise the length of half the major axis of the Earth's slightly elliptical orbit around the Sun, and amounts to nearly 149600000 km.

Recenzje

`This book is extremely well conceived and written and will amply reward each interested reader.' Astronautical Society News Bulletin, August 1987

Spis treści

I: Our Cosmic Neighborhood.- 1 / The ‘Fixed’ Stars and the ‘Wandering’ Planets.- A. Celestial Sphere. Constellations.- B. Copernican Revolution.- C. Kepler’s Laws. Newton’s Law of Gravitation.- 2 / Stellar Motions.- A. Proper Motions.- B. Space Motions.- C. Law of Inertia.- D. Systematic Motions.- 3 / Stellar Distances.- A. Heliocentric Parallax. Stellar Aberration.- B. Measurement of Stellar Parallax.- C. Current Work.- D. Parallax Factors, Heliocentric and Barycentric.- 4 / Stellar Parameters.- A. Masses, Double Stars.- B. Luminosities.- C. Spectra and Spectral Types.- D. Surface Temperatures and Colors.- E. Diameters.- 5 / The Nearby Stars.- A. The Brightest Stars.- B. The Nearest Stars. Spacing of Stars.- C. Main Sequence; Red and White Dwarfs.- D. Mass-Luminosity Relation. Mass Density.- 6 / The Lower End of the Main Sequence.- A. The Intrinsically Faintest Known Visible Stars.- B. Red and Dark Dwarfs.- C. Statistical Studies of Dark Dwarfs.- D. Visible and Invisible Dark Dwarfs.- E. General Remarks.- 7 / Our Solar System.- A. Introduction.- B. Geometric and Kinematic Properties of Planetary Motions.- C. Physical and Chemical Properties of Planetary System.- D. Comets and Extent of Solar System.- 8 / Origins.- A. Galaxies; Solar System.- B. Stars, Double and Multiple Stars.- C. Origin and Evolution of Solar System; Disk.- D. Binary and Multiple Systems.- E. Stars and Planets.- II: Unseen Stars and Planets.- 9 / Historical I.- A. The Stars Sirius and Procyon.- B. The Planets Neptune and Pluto.- 10 / Historical II.- A. ‘The Predictions and Discovery of the Ninth Planet, and the Extensive Planet Search’.- B. ‘Planet X?’.- 11 / Perturbations.- A. General.- B. Spectroscopic, Photometric, and Eclipsing Companions.- C. Photographic Astrometry of Perturbations.- D. Mass Function. Orbital Constant. Dynamical Interpretation.- 12 / Perturbations. Early mostly Photographic Studies.- A. General.- B. Early Results.- 13 / Perturbations. Current Photographic Studies.- A. General.- B. Results.- C. Review.- 14 / Two Cases of Serendipity: Ross 614 and VW Cephei.- A. Ross 614, A case of Quadruple Serendipity.- B. The Discovery of VW Cephei C — Serendipity Again.- 15 / Astrometric Study of Barnard’s Star.- A. Proper Motion, Parallax and Acceleration.- B. Astrometric Profile of Sproul Refractor.- C. Perturbation of Barnard’s Star.- D. Dynamical Interpretation, Planetary System of Barnard’s Star.- 16 / Epilogue.- A. The Cosmic Experiment.- B. Space and Time.- C. Astronomy and Astronomers.